Maybe I am a purist because the original was my favorite movie growing up as a kid. While it's okay to change the storyline in a remake like this, I felt the homages to the original were forced and didn't really fit with the current movie. Examples being the bathtub scene that led nowhere and the body bag scene that was there just to be there. I will admit that while very hard for a movie to get me, I did jump a couple times early on, but after the first 2 it became far too predictable.
Overall I would recommend it though. Good having Freddy be scary again (although he's too short to be intimidating and I can't get past the voice of Rorschach).